This week’s 5 most important social media changes

What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?

YouTube is introducing video fact-checking, Instagram is working on a new ad format and Facebook is battling anti-vax messaging.

Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.

Instagram is testing video co-watching

Facebook already allows you to watch videos with friends through Watch Party. Now it looks like Instagram is trialling a similar feature. The ‘co-watch content’ feature was discovered within Instagram’s Direct Messaging code. While it’s not clear exactly how the feature will work yet, it has the potential to give IGTV a bit of a boost.

Google introduces shoppable ads on Google Images

Google is taking on Pinterest’s core business offering this week by announcing a new product discovery option: shoppable images. Google explains “shoppable ads on Google Images will enable businesses to highlight multiple products available for sale within their sponsored ad.”

Facebook is limiting the spread of anti-vax messaging

The never-ending mission to clean up the Facebook platform continues. This time, Facebook is taking on the anti-vax messaging that has seen a steady increase in popularity in recent years. Facebook has announced several steps to help reduce the spread of “vaccine misinformation” including down ranking content and pages, rejecting ads and hiding the content from the Explore page on Instagram.

YouTube is testing out a new fact-checking feature

Much like Facebook, YouTube is also trying to rid its platform of “misuse and questionable content.” The new ‘fact-check’ pop up will begin to appear on videos relating to subjects that often contain misinformation. These pop-ups will appear on the search page rather than individual videos and the videos will still be able to be searched for and watched.

Instagram is working on new ‘Branded Content’ ads

Instagram has announced this week that it’s developing a new ad format which is designed to “better enable brands and influencers to partner up in a more financially beneficial, and transparent way.” This new ad format would let the influencer publish a post and then allow the advertiser to promote the post just like any other ad.

This week’s 5 most important social media changes

What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?

Facebook will soon disclose who uploaded custom audience information, Google+’s shut down date has been confirmed and Messages can now be unsent in Messenger.

Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.

Facebook will reveal who uploaded ad targeting information

From February 28, the ‘Why am I seeing this?’ button on Facebook ads will not only reveal which brand has paid for the ad but who uploaded your contact information and when it was uploaded. A spokesperson for Facebook stated that the goal of this update is to give people a better understanding of how advertisers use their information.

YouTube is expanding the test of its Content Discovery tool

YouTube is expanding the test of its explore feature to new devices including iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets and desktops. The feature isn’t dissimilar to Instagram’s Explore page which allows users to find new content based on accounts they follow. The new YouTube feature aims to “introduce users to a diverse set of personalised content.”

Facebook budget optimisation is coming to campaigns

Campaign budget optimisation has been available since 2017. It allows Facebook’s algorithm to optimise the budget across all ad sets. Now Facebook has announced that as of September 2019, all new and existing campaigns will automatically be budget optimised and advertisers will not be able to turn it off.

Google has given Google+ its expiration date

Google announced in October last year that they would be shutting down Google+ for consumers by August 2019. When the privacy bug surfaced, they announced that they would expedite the closure to the end of April 2019. Google has now confirmed that Google+ will now be shut down on April 2nd.

You can now delete sent messages in Messenger

We’ve all sent a message and instantly wanted to delete it from our device, forgetting it was ever crafted. Messenger has announced that they’re finally rolling out the ability to delete messages after they’ve been sent. There’s a catch, messages will only be able to be deleted for up to 10 minutes after they were sent.

This week’s 5 most important social media changes

What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?

YouTube has been busy making a lot of changes this week, Facebook has introduced automatic translation for Dynamic Ads and Twitter has rolled out reverse chronological timelines for Andriod users.

Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.

YouTube is testing a ‘Recommended Downloads’ feature

Downloading YouTube videos for later offline viewing is not a new feature. Users in all almost all countries have been able to do this for the last five years. YouTube is taking this feature a step further by testing download recommendations for users. It’s not yet known if the feature will be rolled out more widely.

Twitter rolls out chronological feeds for Android

The ability to switch between reverse chronological and algorithm based Twitter timelines was given to iOS users almost a month ago but Andriod users were left in the dark about when they’d be getting the update. Finally, Twitter rolled out the new ‘sparkle’ button to Android users yesterday and they are loving it.

Facebook adds new language option for Dynamic Ads

Facebook has been pushing cross-border initiatives for the last couple of years the aim of which is to help people and business’ communicate with anyone, anywhere. To further this ambition along, Facebook has introduced automatic translation for Dynamic Ads. This is an incredibly useful addition for any business who reaches an international audience.

YouTube is letting users swipe between videos

Swiping is the new tapping for YouTube in 2019. Unsurprisingly given the high video view rates that come from mobile, YouTube has introduced a few new features to make the platform more mobile friendly, one of which is the ability to swipe left and right between new videos. iOS users should start to see the feature in the coming weeks.

YouTube is removing some sharing capabilities

YouTube has announced this week that it will be removing the ability for users to automatically share their YouTube activities to Google+ and Twitter. The removal of Google+ comes as no surprise given it’s no longer available to everyday users but Twitter is more of a surprise. The feature will be removed after Jan 31st.

This week’s 5 most important social media changes

What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?

YouTube introduces new CTA extensions for video ads, Facebook is testing search as an ad placement option and Instagram has added a new sticker.

Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.

YouTube introduces a new call-to-action extension for video ads

YouTube has introduced a new call-to-action extension that will take the place of their existing CTA overlays. Then CTAs will be displayed on screen both while your ad is playing and after it has finished. YouTube hope this new format will be “a great way to enhance viewer engagement.”

Facebook adds search to the list of ad placement options

Ad revenue has slowed for the social networking giant so they’re trying to find new ways to kick-start ad spend. Facebook announced this week that they’re beginning a small test of ads in search results. Facebook originally tried to introduce search ads back in 2012 but ultimately decided to roll them back.

Instagram adds a new countdown sticker

A new sticker has been added to Instagram Stories. The ‘Countdown’ sticker allows you to display a timer that counts down to a specific event or time. Users have the option to be notified when the timer runs out so it could be a useful tool for building hype around product launches or big announcements.

Instagram is testing new account features aimed at influencers

New reports suggest that Instagram is testing profiles for creators. “Creators are an important part of [the Instagram] community” as such, the creator profiles will reportedly have new, creator specific tools that include more detailed audience insights.

Facebook gives ‘Life Events’ an update

Facebook is updating ‘Life Events’ with new interactive features and it’s getting a new place to live on the main profile page. According to Facebook, life events are incredibly popular and research suggests that people want to see more of this kind of content in their feeds.

This week’s 5 most important social media changes

What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?

Instagram is expanding their side-scroll newsfeed test, YouTube has added autoplay videos to their home tab and Facebook is testing a new comment quality feedback option.

Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.

Instagram is expanding side-scrolling feed testing

Previously, Instagram has only been testing the side-scroll feed on the explore page but reports have surfaced this week that show Instagram has begun to test side-scrolling in the main Instagram newsfeed. The new format has been influenced by the increasing popularity of Stories which now have over 1 billion users across the Facebook-owned apps alone.

YouTube adds autoplay videos to the home tab

YouTube has announced that videos on the home page of both the Android and iOS apps will now autoplay, muted and with captions. According to YouTube, the change will make it easier for users to preview content on the go. Users will be able to control how the autoplay function works, including being able to turn it off entirely.

Facebook Pages will now show which countries they are being managed from

Facebook is constantly looking for new ways to increase transparency across the platform. This time they’re making adjustments to the information that is displayed in the Page Info section. As of this week, Facebook will now show the primary country locations of people in all existing page roles.

Instagram had a glitch that messed up the newsfeed

The glitch came in the form of random bars appearing on in-feed photos which looked similar to a scrambled VHS tape. The source is yet to be confirmed but Instagram has confirmed that the issue is on their end and they’re not sure how long it will take to fix the bug.

Facebook is testing a comment quality feedback option

The upvote / downvote option was introduced earlier this year as a way for users to provide immediate feedback on comment quality, there’s limited data to tell us whether or not users are using the feature but now Facebook is testing a variation on this feature. The comment quality feature is a small survey that allows users to give Facebook feedback on comment quality.

This week’s 5 most important social media changes

What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?

Instagram is making their platform more inclusive, YouTube is retiring annotations and LinkedIn is updating their share box.

Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.

Instagram introduces features for the visually impaired

Instagram is designed to be a visual first platform. This week Instagram announced new features that will make the platform more accessible for visually impaired users. Automatic and custom alt text tests have begun which will allow visually impaired users to listen to descriptions of photos through screen readers.

YouTube is retiring annotations

Those pesky semi-transparent boxes interrupting your YouTube viewing experience will be no longer as of January 2019 as YouTube has decided to completely remove them from the platform. Annotations will no longer be able to be added to videos and preexisting annotations will be removed completely.

Facebook expands ‘Today In’ local news section

After announcing earlier this month that ‘Today In’ will be expanded to 10 more cities in Australia, Facebook has announced that 400 cities in the US will be able to access the feature. ‘Today In’ is designed to “connect people to local news” and keep them up to date with “information from their communities.”

YouTube Originals will now be free to view

The fight to be the king of video is a strategic game. YouTube has had a slight shift in direction by announcing that their YouTube Originals will now be made freely accessible but will be ad-supported instead of on a subscription basis. YouTube Premium subscribers don’t lose out entirely, they’ll be granted early access to all new content.

LinkedIn is rolling out a new share box

LinkedIn has been making a lot of big changes recently, the most notable being their update to company pages. This week they announced an update to their share box which is designed to make it easier for users to pick the audience for each of their posts. The new functionality is similar to Facebook’s sharing capabilities.